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The Associated Press

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MONTE CARLO, Monaco - Defending champion Manchester United will face British rival Celtic in the group stage of the Champions League.

United will also meet Villarreal and Aalborg in the 32-team phase, with the first round held on Sept. 16-17.

United coach Sir Alex Ferguson was relishing defending the trophy and wants points on the board straight away.

"That is a great challenge," Ferguson said Thursday. "The challenge is to make sure you get 10 points as quick as you can. I think we have the squad for it."

Celtic striker Scott McDonald was thrilled with drawing a defending champion for the second straight year.

"We always love to draw the champion of Europe as we did last year (with FC Barcelona)," McDonald said.

"All of those things add up to good things and get us to the next round again. They're going to be fantastic games."

Despite clinching the English Premier League and Champions League last season for the second time in his career - he guided United to the treble in 1999 - Ferguson does not consider United to be the favourite.

"You can't begin to think you're the favourite when you see teams like Milan, Barcelona, Juventus ... all these great names," Ferguson said.

Club captain Gary Neville expects the injury-hit squad to be stretched, as it also defends the Premier League title.

"We've got a big squad and we're going to need that with the amount of games we've got this season," he said.

However, United chief executive David Gill stresses how the close proximity of opponents will reduce travel time.

"The way the games have fallen means our first game is at home to Villarreal between our trips to Liverpool and Chelsea, which is good," Gill said.

That is not the case for Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger in Group G. His team faces long trips to Turkey, to play Fenerbahce, and to Ukraine, against Dynamo Kyiv. Arsenal, the 2006 runner-up, also takes on FC Porto.

"Arsene's main issue will be the travel," Arsenal director Danny Fiszman said. "Kyiv and Fenerbahce are long trips. That is the real issue for us."

Villarreal midfielder Robert Pires, who played against United several times with Arsenal, suggested his side's best hope was finishing runner-up. "It's a difficult group because we are playing the best team in the world," Pires said.

United's trip to Villarreal in Group E will revive bad memories of striker Wayne Rooney's sending off there in September 2005 as Ferguson's side failed to progress into the knockout phase. Chelsea, which lost May's final on penalty kicks to the Red Devils, also has a relatively easy Group E, featuring AS Roma, which hosts May's final at the Stadio Olimpico, Bordeaux and newcomer CFR Cluj.

Liverpool will meet Marseille for a second straight season, and the Reds' Spain star Fernando Torres will return to former club Atletico Madrid. Group D also features PSV Eindhoven.